Ohio Senate Leader Apologizes for Remark

Published 7:00 pm, Saturday, January 11, 2003

The Ohio state Senate president acknowledged Sunday that he made an anti-Semitic remark at a fund-raiser last year, and later apologized to Jewish leaders when he realized that some in the audience were offended.

Doug White, a Republican from Manchester, said he was making a joke about a rodeo during the event in Cleveland before the Nov. 5 election when he said "We need to jew them down," the Cincinnati Enquirer reported.

White said Sunday that he could not remember exactly in what context he used the phrase.

It was not immediately clear what White meant. The Webster's New World College Dictionary includes the phrase among its slang entries and defines it as bargaining for better terms in a business transaction.

"I had no idea of the sensitivity at that point," White said.

White, who was sworn in last week, referred to his rural upbringing, saying, "I grew up in Adams County." Manchester is a small town in southern Ohio, on the Kentucky border.

Joyce Garver Keller, director of the Ohio Jewish Communities in Columbus, said many in the audience were surprised by the remark.

"I told the senator he had to work on Adams County expressions that he grew up with, and he understood that," Keller said.

She said she would not judge the senator based on one comment.

"There were some people who were taken aback, I think, more than anything, and there was some good dialogue in the community about that expression, and what it means," she said.